HY4RES meeting with Island Seafoods Ltd.

Island Seafoods is driven to transform into a sustainable energy business and have received a number of sustainability awards for their work to date (e.g., Green Business of the Year 2015). The renewable energy produced on their site currently comes from two sources: hydro and wind power.

Firstly, the hydropower plant was commissioned in 2007, and currently produces 200-240 kW. The plant uses a Francis turbine, also known as an inward-flow reaction turbine, and this is a common turbine type used in medium hydropower plants. The specifications for the hydro installation include a head height is 61 metres, a speed of up 1000 rpm and a flow rate of 0.7 m³/s. The hydropower plant provides the energy to operate the wastewater treatment works, and exports additional energy when the treatment is not taking place during operational hours on the site.

More recently, an 850 kW wind turbine was also installed two years ago, but due to grid capacity limits for local exports, the turbine is operating at 50% capacity. Today, Island Seafoods uses approximately 80 kW of energy from the turbine on site, providing electricity to Island Seafoods and another business Albatross Seafoods hosted on the same site, and it can export only 120 kW due to these capacity restrictions. Depending on local conditions and turbine power generation, a further 180 kW is then used to power heaters that burns the excess energy and stabilise the system. To use this excess energy, and to maximise the potential of the wind turbine’s capacity, in a more sustainable manner, is the goal for Island Seafoods.

To further enhance their sustainability credentials, and also to play a role at becoming a circular economy business, Island Seafoods are investing in constructing a biomass drying facility to produce kiln dried firewood. This will use the excess energy in a flexible manner, avoiding waste energy and producing an added-value product using locally sourced wood.

In this context, the HY4RES project will support Island Seafoods in achieving their ambition by developing intelligent management software to help optimise renewable energy production and consumption at this site. Therefore, the fish processing food facility can go further in its sustainability journey, and this will be an exemplar aquaculture pilot site for the HY4RES project.

The researchers will benefit from energy data and generation on Advisor Data Software, plus hydropower data, collected by the company over the past 10 years. HY4RES will also benefit from the experience and knowledge generated in the REDAWN project, which aimed to develop micro-hydropower technology to improve the energy efficiency of water networks. The possibility to install a micro-hydropower on stream along the north of the site was discussed.

As with many other companies in the fishing sector, Island Seafoods have been severely impacted by the quotas cut following Brexit, amounting to a reduction of 70-80% in fish stock coming in to Killybegs port annually. The company have innovated and created a commercial brand Atlantic Treasures, and it is this enterprise that is providing an added-value product range with smoked and flavoured fish now on the shelves of multiple supermarkets nationwide.

Renewable energy generation on site has already provided them with security, as Island Seafoods are less affected by energy price fluctuations in recent years. The HY4RES will support them in their next step of their sustainable energy journey with the optimisation of their hybrid renewable energy system, combining wind and hydro generation with biomass production, to enable Island Seafoods to make the most of the available renewable energy and lower the use of grid electricity for fish processing activities.

The ambition of the HY4RES aquaculture pilot site is to demonstrate the cost competitiveness of such systems and their benefits for lowering the carbon footprint of the aquaculture sector.